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In order to cater for this growth, the healthcare sector could turn to new technologies to make up for a shortage in skills.
"There is a noticeable shortage of skilled resources in the medical field at large," claims Dave Marzouk, director of strategic industries, SAP MENA. "The medical industry is always looking for ways to optimise its technical management, to focus accordingly and improve efficiency. To use the SAP solution for patient management as an example, it eases the admin work and provides a focus for clinical solutions allowing doctors to manage the clinical side with ease. By improving the efficiency of the hospital in this way, better care can be provided for the patients."
This is a broad summary of the goal of IT infrastructure in healthcare - to let medical professionals concentrate on care rather than administration.
Governments invest as chronic diseases take grip
The market for IT solutions in the Middle East healthcare sector is also being driven by the worrying rise of several chronic diseases in the region, most notably diabetes.
"The medical industry is gearing up to address these diseases, particularly type one and type two diabetes. In general, the aim is to provide solutions to the facilities - the technical and back-end operations - to improve the overall care for the constituencies," says Marzouk.
And governments in the region are addressing these challenges. Marzouk highlights Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the region's big spenders in healthcare. The result is a very stable and fertile market for IT vendors.
"There has been steady growth in the Mena region in the past few years. There is a stable trend and the suggestions are that there will be continued growth. Throughout the past few years a number of countries have continued to invest in healthcare to optimise and improve the quality," says Marzouk.
Opportunity knocks as IT adoption rates soar
One benefit for the IT managers responsible for implementing these systems is the absence of legacy systems.
"The Middle East is very fortunate in a way because there are no entrenched legacy systems to replace. It's a clean slate and a big opportunity to build processes around the technology as opposed to the other way, which tends to be less successful," says Jorgen Ellingson, CEO and founder of Doktor-i.com, a patient/doctor portal in the Middle East.
"Adoption rate is perhaps slower with healthcare, primarily because it's so far behind the other industries. I think the final realisation that they are so far behind and new legislation to push them to catch-up has accelerated the adoption process in recent years," according to Ellingson.
This fact has not gone unnoticed by the major IT providers.
"All the big players have jumped in [to the sector] simply because of the huge market size. I don't know of a bigger market than healthcare at the moment," he claims.
Patients benefit under the IT revolution
The work of hospitals and clinics differs greatly from other vertical markets.
